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Chapter 1: Planning Your Network
The Gateway’s Functions
Wireless-G ADSL Gateway with 2 Phone Ports
Chapter 1: Planning Your Network
The Gateway’s Functions
A Gateway is a network device that connects two networks.
This Gateway connects your local network, or the group of computers in your home or office, to the Internet. The
Gateway processes and regulates the data that travels between these two networks.
The Gateway’s NAT feature protects your network of computers so users on the public, Internet side cannot “see”
your computers. This is how your network remains private. The Gateway protects your network by inspecting
every packet coming in through the Internet port before delivery to the appropriate computer on your network.
The Gateway inspects Internet port services like the web server, ftp server, or other Internet applications, and, if
allowed, it will forward the packet to the appropriate computer on your network.
Remember that the Gateway’s ports connect to two sides. The network ports connect to your network, and the
ADSL port connects to the Internet. The network ports transmit data at 10/100Mbps.
IP Addresses
What’s an IP Address?
IP stands for Internet Protocol. Every device on an IP-based network, including computers, print servers, and
Gateways, requires an IP address to identify its “location,” or address, on the network. This applies to both the
Internet and network connections. There are two ways of assigning an IP address to your network devices. You
can assign static IP addresses or use the Gateway to assign IP addresses dynamically.
Static IP Addresses
A static IP address is a fixed IP address that you assign manually to a computer or other device on the network.
Since a static IP address remains valid until you disable it, static IP addressing ensures that the device assigned
it will always have that same IP address until you change it. Static IP addresses must be unique and are
commonly used with network devices such as server computers or print servers.
NOTE:
Since the Gateway is a device that connects
two networks, it needs two IP addresses—one for
your network, and one for the Internet. In this User
Guide, you’ll see references to these address.”
Since the Gateway uses NAT technology, the only IP
address that can be seen from the Internet for your
network is the Gateway’s Internet IP address.
However, even this Internet IP address can be blocked,
so that the Gateway and network seem invisible to the
Internet—see the Block WAN Requests description
under Security in
Chapter 4: Configuring the Gateway
.
Figure 1-1: Network
